After
by thedeliverygod
Summary: Following his failure of the Mark of Mastery, Sora finds himself filled with doubt. After several failed attempts on Riku's part to find out what's wrong, he asks Kairi to try talking to him. Post-KH3D, pre-KH3. One-shot.


**This one-shot was inspired by a prompt submitted to my** _ **Sea & Sky**_ **collection by Monkey D. Conan.**

After

Sora was done. After to losing to Riku _again_ , he almost didn't want to get up from the floor. But since Kairi was around, he had to. He couldn't worry her or else he'd feel worse than he already did.

"Are you okay?" She sat on her knees as close to him as she could, just outside the borderline for the match.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position, mustering a smile to answer, "I'm fine."

Then he heard Riku's disappointed voice, "Sora, you need to focus." The brunette frowned and turned around slowly to face his friend, who continued, "I _know_ you can beat me, but something's holding you back."

"I just need to keep trying." Sora stood up and wiped off his clothes, "But I'm exhausted so… can we just do it again tomorrow?"

Riku didn't look convinced, his face still serious and his arms crossed, but his shoulders fell as he answered softly, "Sure."

The younger boy started to walk out of the room before Kairi called out his name, "Sora,"

He turned his head and smiled again, "I'm gonna relax for a little bit. I'll see you guys at dinner." With that, he walked out the doors.

Kairi heaved a sigh and turned back to Riku, "What should we do?"

"You need to talk to him. I've tried a couple of times, but he won't tell me what's wrong." He ran a hand through his hair, annoyed and concerned.

Kairi bit her lip, unsure, "But why do you think he would tell me if he won't talk to you about it?"

"I'm not sure he will," Riku gave a small smile, "But it's just a hunch."

"If you say so." She answered doubtingly.

Riku took a step forward, pleading, "Just try, please?"

"I will." She nodded, turning to leave, "I want Sora back to normal just as much as you do."

oxoxo

Sora had tossed his dirty and sweaty clothes to the ground, opting for a new tank top and shorts before he plopped down on top of his bed. A little bit of light peeked in through the window, but the world where Yen Sid's tower was placed didn't really have much of a difference between day and night. So without a lamp on, his room was still relatively dark. Turning over and closing his eyes, he started to drift off into sleep before he heard a soft knock on the door.

"Yeah?" He answered tiredly.

"Can I come in?" Kairi asked quietly, almost sounding nervous.

He sat up, answering, "The door's open." Watching her open the door and peek in before entering and closing the door, he asked, "What's up?"

She slid her shoes off before sitting at the end of his bed like she always did, answering, "I wanted to talk to you."

"About?" Just as the word passed his lips, he knew the answer. When she had first gotten there, he loved nothing more than when she would come into his room and they'd talk for a while. But the more frustrated he was getting, the less she came by. And after avoiding the subject around both her and Riku for so long, he supposed it was only a matter of time.

"I'm worried about you." She answered honestly, fiddling with her hands as she did so.

Sora frowned, "I told you guys, I'm fi—"

"You've been telling us that for almost two weeks now and nothing's changed. If anything, you've gotten worse." Kairi interrupted him, almost sounding a little irritated, but mostly desperate, "Why won't you talk to us?"

He blinked, taken aback by her frustration. After a moment, he sighed and sunk backwards into the headboard, "I'm sorry." Taking another pause, he continued, "I'll tell you. But just promise that you won't say anything to Riku."

She looked back at him in confusion, "Why not?"

"I don't want him to feel bad." Sora mumbled, looking down at the floor.

Scooting a bit closer to him, she agreed, "I promise."

Not looking up at her, he began to explain, "I've just been doubting myself ever since the mark of mastery. And I don't want him to feel bad that he passed and I didn't, because my reaction to him passing was entirely authentic. I'm still extremely happy for him. But it's not just that I didn't pass, I…" He bit his lip, pausing, "Almost became one of them. One of _him_. If it weren't for Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, Lea, and Riku, I wouldn't even be here right now."

He turned further to his left, facing the wall and hiding his expression from her, "I've been told quite a few times that Riku was the one the keyblade chose. And that never bothered me before, because I felt like I could still do my best to help him; to help everybody. But after I got myself into that situation so easily, I have to wonder why I even still have the keyblade at all. I was completely helpless and there was nothing I could do for myself or anyone else. I'm glad that Riku finally saw he was worthy of the keyblade and became a master, but I feel like the mark of mastery did the complete opposite for me."

"Well, I know all too well about feeling hopeless." He finally looked up at her again, only to find that she was looking off now, "When I woke up to find you disappearing, when I had to stay behind in Traverse Town and back at home because I didn't have a way to help, when I was imprisoned by the Organization, when I tried to rush to help you and was stopped by heartless, when I had to wait at home not knowing if you or Riku were okay after the dark portal closed…"

His heart dropped further and further into his chest the more her list went on. Once she had finished, the only thing he could manage to say was her name, "Kairi…"

"So, do you still think I should be here training with you guys, after all of that?" She turned back to him, her eyebrows raised.

"Of course I do!" He sat up straight, defending vigorously, "You've never thought twice about putting yourself in danger for me or Riku, even without a weapon. You're probably braver than the two of us put together."

She smiled sweetly momentarily before questioning, "So why would you not deserve the keyblade because of a single situation compared to everything else you've done?"

His lips parted, but he had no answer, so Kairi reached out to touch his shoulder and squeezed it tightly as she continued, "You did everything right. Without Xehanort's interference, there's no way you wouldn't have passed the mark of mastery. You helped all the people in those worlds and you sealed all of the keyholes. Riku told me that Yen Sid even said that you deserved the honor. But no one could have guessed that Xehanort would have hijacked your test from the very beginning. It could have happened to any one of us." Pausing, she added quietly, "And you have to remember… it's not like Riku didn't have to go through hardships to get where he is now. I'm sure he felt a lot like you do after letting Xehanort's heartless take control of him."

Sora looked down at his lap, feeling guilty, "I didn't think about that."

"That's okay. But that's why you should always talk to us when something's bothering you." She pulled her hand back into her own lap, smiling at him, "We might be able to relate more than you think."

He looked up and smiled back once he caught sight of her, answering, "I guess so." He slid forward a little bit and reached out for her, awkwardly pulling her into a hug as he said, "Thanks, Kairi."

"You're welcome." She hugged him back tightly.

Pulling away enough to meet her eyes but still keeping his arms lightly around her, he asked, "Would you mind practicing with me? I wanna be the best that I can before I fight Riku again tomorrow."

"Sure." She nodded. Once he let her slip out of his grasp, she slid off the bed and onto the floor, beginning to put her shoes on, "I'll meet you down there."

"Okay." He turned, letting his feet dangle off the side of his bed but was unmoving as he watched Kairi move across his room and out the door, seeing her flash another smile before gently pressing the door shut. Smiling to himself, he dropped to the floor and started his search for more battle appropriate clothing.

When he had changed and made his way downstairs, he heard Kairi's voice as he opened the doors to the practice room, "Took you long enough."

"Yeah, yeah." Sora reached over to grab two wooden swords off the wall and tossed one to Kairi, which she caught easily. Though they knew she had the capability to wield a keyblade, she had yet to materialize one herself and so they stuck to wooden swords for practice. Thankfully, the ones that Yen Sid provided were a lot better than the handmade ones they had carried around on the islands; they were much more realistic and durable.

Just as soon as he had managed to turn around, Kairi was already swinging at him with all her strength. He barely reached his sword up fast enough to block her, careful not to let her sword crash down on his fingers. Trying to swing back at her, she effortlessly dodged him as she twirled in and out of his reach. "You're so fast." He commented, failing at his attempt to stop her in her tracks.

She ducked underneath his sword and put herself in the space between it and him, giving him a peck on the cheek and saying, "I know." She quickly ducked again, moving out of his reach even though she didn't really need to. Sora was frozen in place before she tapped his shoulder roughly with her sword, "You didn't say we had to play fair."

He spun around quickly enough to surprise her, managing to get one hit in before she blocked him. As she jumped out of his reach, he asked curiously, "Do you do that when practicing with Riku or Lea?"

"What?" She stumbled before lunging towards him again, "N-no!"

He blocked a few more of her strikes, eventually locking his sword against hers. Shortly after he did that, he reached one hand off of his sword and grabbed hers, pushing it down and lowering his down to his side.

As she struggled to keep her sword lifted, she asked, "What are you doing?"

"The same thing as you. Not playing fair." He continued to push her sword down to her side, leaning his head towards hers. Her grip was already getting loose, but the sword dropped entirely out of her hands and onto the floor the moment his lips touched hers. Now that his left hand was free, he cupped her face lightly and pulled her closer as he kissed her.

Kairi kissed him back softly, though she was so shocked she wasn't entirely sure how she was still managing to stand. She had given him a peck just to tease him and to eventually lead up to this, but she definitely didn't expect him to make his own move so quickly. She figured it would maybe take a few days, possibly more.

Faster than she could figure out what was going on, he pulled away and took a step back to swing at her again. She ducked down as quickly as she could and lifted her arm above her head as she shut her eyes tightly, expecting to feel the pain of the hit. Instead, she heard a metallic cling and felt a weight in her hand. Looking up to see her keyblade, she also saw Sora's sword drop to the floor before looking up to see him staring proudly.

Getting back into a battle pose, she urged him excitedly, "C'mon! Use your keyblade too so I can get my first bit of real practice!"

"Uhh.. Alright." Sora complied, kicking the wooden swords out of the way before summoning his own keyblade. It was easier to block her now, the keyblade was much heavier than the wooden sword and she couldn't move nearly as fast. Though she did her best and put up a good fight, it wasn't long till she was exhausted and he suggested, "Let's go ahead and call it a day."

Kairi stood up straight and glanced down to her keyblade nervously, asking, "Do you think I'll be able to summon it again tomorrow?"

"It may take a little while to get used to, but you'll get it." He answered honestly.

Holding it out in front of her and admiring it one last time, she then dismissed it. Walking over to Sora, she draped her arms across his shoulders and pulled him down towards her, kissing him again. He held her waist gently as he kissed her back, glad to get the opportunity to do it without an ulterior motive.

"Thank you." She said softly as she pulled away, "See you at dinner? I've gotta go clean up a little bit." She smiled but took a step away.

He nodded, "Yeah, see you then."

oxoxo

The next morning, Riku and Kairi were both waiting in the training room for him. "You think you'll do better today?" The older boy asked him as he walked in.

"Definitely." He snuck in a quick smile to Kairi before making his way to the center of the room.

Riku summoned his keyblade and took his stance, "Let's get started, then."

Sora smirked and readied himself as well, "You asked for it."

"Go." Riku swung at him and he leaned his body backward, narrowly evading his keyblade.

Continuing to block him, Sora kept moving backward until he finally got enough distance between them to use strike raid. Though his keyblade clipped Riku on the way out, he dodged it on the way back towards Sora. Just as he thought ' _This would be a good time to have two keyblades_.', he reached out to catch it and it glowed as he did so. He squinted from the brightness of the light, wondering what was going on. When the light finally faded, he saw his keyblade had become two separate gun shaped weapons. "Whoa!" He laughed excitedly.

"What is that?" Riku gaped, and Kairi had her hands up to her face in surprise.

Now that Riku was completely unguarded, Sora teased, "Guess we'll have to find out." Squeezing the triggers on the guns, huge fireballs shot out towards Riku. Using a barrier, the fireballs went flying into the ceiling, which was protected by Yen Sid's magic.

"Uh…" Riku stood up straight, "I think we should stop till we talk to Yen Sid and King Mickey and find out more about this."

"So I win." Sora grinned, relaxing his shoulders.

The older boy dismissed his keyblade, "Yeah , you win." He turned back to their other friend, "And I'm guessing it's thanks to Kairi."

"Yep." Sora started walking towards her.

She smiled sheepishly, "Only a little. That trick you just did with your keyblade was all you."

"Sorta. You helped get me back to normal and Riku always brings out the competitiveness in me, so it's really thanks to both of you." He stopped next to his other best friend.

"You've gotta give yourself credit too, you know." Riku waved his arms towards him.

He nodded, "Yeah, I know. But I'll do that later." He continued walking towards Kairi. She glanced between him and Riku nervously, as they had yet to tell him that they were now more than just friends, but Sora was too happy to be embarrassed.

As Sora leaned in to kiss her, they both heard Riku let out a loud, " _Oh_." When they both pulled away and looked back at him, he was smirking, "Well no _wonder_ you're in such a better mood."

The brunette considered making a witty remark but instead held on a little tighter to Kairi, both smiling widely.


End file.
